U.S. patent number 8,386,929 [Application Number 12/820,600] was granted by the patent office on 2013-02-26 for personal assistant for task utilization.
This patent grant is currently assigned to Microsoft Corporation. The grantee listed for this patent is Ned B. Friend, Erez Kikin-Gil, Matthew J. Kotler, Charles W. Parker, Marta Rey-Babarro, Jesse Clay Satterfield, Igor Zaika. Invention is credited to Ned B. Friend, Erez Kikin-Gil, Matthew J. Kotler, Charles W. Parker, Marta Rey-Babarro, Jesse Clay Satterfield, Igor Zaika.
United States Patent |
8,386,929 |
Zaika , et al. |
February 26, 2013 |
Personal assistant for task utilization
Abstract
An electronic personal assistant that uses task information to
obtain task performance assistance and help content is provided.
Tasks from an electronic tasks application may be utilized by the
personal assistant application to search a variety of information
sources for task performance functionality and help content related
to the tasks. The personal assistant may provide functionality to
help a user actually perform a given task. Alternatively, once help
content is obtained, a new task may be generated or the related
task may be modified to provide the help content or to provide a
link to the help content. The personal assistant application may
provide the help content in a separate user interface or cause an
application from which the help content is obtained to be
launched.
Inventors: |
Zaika; Igor (Seattle, WA),
Friend; Ned B. (Seattle, WA), Kikin-Gil; Erez (Redmond,
WA), Kotler; Matthew J. (Sammamish, WA), Parker; Charles
W. (Sammamish, WA), Satterfield; Jesse Clay (Seattle,
WA), Rey-Babarro; Marta (Seattle, WA) |
Applicant: |
Name |
City |
State |
Country |
Type |
Zaika; Igor
Friend; Ned B.
Kikin-Gil; Erez
Kotler; Matthew J.
Parker; Charles W.
Satterfield; Jesse Clay
Rey-Babarro; Marta |
Seattle
Seattle
Redmond
Sammamish
Sammamish
Seattle
Seattle |
WA
WA
WA
WA
WA
WA
WA |
US
US
US
US
US
US
US |
|
|
Assignee: |
Microsoft Corporation (Redmond,
WA)
|
Family
ID: |
45329783 |
Appl.
No.: |
12/820,600 |
Filed: |
June 22, 2010 |
Prior Publication Data
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Document
Identifier |
Publication Date |
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US 20110314375 A1 |
Dec 22, 2011 |
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Current U.S.
Class: |
715/705; 715/256;
707/E17.005; 715/762; 715/234; 707/805; 715/205 |
Current CPC
Class: |
G06Q
10/109 (20130101); G06F 3/0482 (20130101); G06Q
30/0241 (20130101) |
Current International
Class: |
G06F
3/00 (20060101); G06F 17/30 (20060101) |
Field of
Search: |
;715/200,201,202,205,207,210,212,229,230,231,234,253,254,255,256,261,262,273,738,739,740,744,752,760,762,763,764,778,779,804,805,809,203,204,226,700,702,705,708
;707/705,726,805,999.001,999.107,E17.005 |
References Cited
[Referenced By]
U.S. Patent Documents
Foreign Patent Documents
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WO 01/13069 |
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Feb 2001 |
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WO |
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WO 03/107129 |
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Dec 2003 |
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WO |
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Other References
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f, 10 pages. cited by applicant .
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Capturing and Managing Tasks with Mobile Devices", MoMM 2008, Nov.
24-26, 2008, Linz, Austria. http://www.mayrhofer.eu.org/downloads/
pubications/MoMM2008-Towards-Mobile-Task-Management.pdf, 4 pages.
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Alto, California. Published 2009.
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mu.edu/.about.faulring/papers/cal-sched-dis06.pdf+tasks+calendar+organize+-
, 8pgs., 2006. cited by applicant .
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http://portal.acm.org/citation.cfm?id=985692.985785, 8pgs., Apr.
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Task Manager", published in ECSCW '93, Proc. Third European
Conference on Computer-Supported Cooperative Work on Sep. 15-17,
1993, Milano, Italy. Reprinted by permissions of Kluwer Academic
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pe=pdf, 16 pages. cited by applicant .
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cited by applicant .
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and Time Management", Aug. 7, 2006,
http://www.eecs.umich.edu/.about.pollackm/distrib/aimag06.pdf, 19
pages. cited by applicant.
|
Primary Examiner: Nguyen; Maikhanh
Attorney, Agent or Firm: Merchant & Gould
Claims
We claim:
1. In a computer system , a method performed by a processor for
providing assistance in association with an electronic task,
comprising: receiving a first electronic task; in response to
receiving the first electronic task, performing the following
operations: parsing a text string of the first electronic task for
one or more keywords; searching a data source using the one or more
keywords for the assistance associated with the first electronic
task; determining whether the assistance provides for modifying the
first electronic task or for generating a new electronic task; if
the assistance provides for modifying the first electronic task,
modifying the first electronic task to include the assistance
associated with the first electronic task, the assistance including
one or more of: modifying the first electronic task to include help
content; and modifying the first electronic task to include a
selectable link to the help content; if the assistance provides for
generating the new electronic task, generating a second electronic
task that includes the assistance associated with the first
electronic task; and presenting the second electronic task or the
modified first electronic task and the associated help content in a
task list user interface.
2. The method of claim 1, wherein searching the data source for the
assistance associated with the first electronic task includes
searching the data source for application functionality for
performing the first electronic task; and providing the assistance
associated with the first electronic task includes launching the
application functionality for performing the first electronic
task.
3. The method of claim 1, wherein searching the data source for the
assistance associated with the first electronic task includes
searching the data source for the help content associated with the
first electronic task.
4. The method of claim 1, wherein searching the data source for the
assistance associated with the first electronic task includes using
the text string of the first electronic task as a search phrase for
searching the data source for the assistance associated with the
first electronic task.
5. The method of claim 4, wherein using the text string of the
first electronic task as the search phrase for searching the data
source for the assistance associated with the first electronic task
includes using the one or more keywords parsed from the text string
of the first electronic task as the one or more keywords for
searching the data source for the assistance associated with the
first electronic task.
6. The method of claim 5, wherein using the one or more keywords
parsed from the text string of the first electronic task as the one
or more keywords for searching the data source for the assistance
associated with the first electronic task includes matching one or
more words parsed from the text string against a list of predefined
words for developing a search string for searching the data source
for the assistance associated with the first electronic task.
7. The method of claim 1, wherein searching the data source for the
assistance associated with the first electronic task includes
searching the data source for the assistance with the first
electronic task based on one or more user task performance
preferences.
8. The method of claim 1, wherein receiving the first electronic
task includes receiving the first electronic task based on upon a
reminder to perform the first electronic task.
9. The method of claim 1, wherein receiving the first electronic
task is in response to receiving a selection of the first
electronic task.
10. The method of claim 1, wherein receiving the first electronic
task is in response to the first electronic task being positioned
at the top of a task list in which the first electronic task is
listed.
11. The method of claim 1, wherein modifying the first electronic
task to include the help content associated with the first
electronic task includes modifying the first electronic task to
provide the help content in a separate user interface.
12. The method of claim 1, wherein modifying the first electronic
task to include the help content associated with the first
electronic task includes importing a task template for providing
one or more subtasks to the first electronic task for performing
the first electronic task.
13. The method of claim 3, further comprising displaying the help
content associated with the first electronic task in a user
interface separate from a presentation of the modified first
electronic task.
14. The method of claim 3, wherein in response to a selection of
the help content item displayed in association with the modified
first electronic task, providing the help content item in a help
content user interface.
15. A computer readable storage medium having stored thereon
computer executable instructions which when executed by a computer
perform a method for providing assistance in association with an
electronic task, comprising: receiving a first electronic task; in
response to receiving the first electronic task, performing the
following operations: parsing a text string of the first electronic
task for one or more keywords; searching a data source using the
one or more keywords for assistance associated with the first
electronic task; determining whether the assistance provides for
modifying the first electronic task or for generating a new
electronic task; if the assistance provides for modifying the first
electronic task, modifying the first electronic task to include the
assistance associated with the first electronic task; and if the
assistance provides for generating the new electronic task,
generating a second electronic task that includes the assistance
associated with the first electronic task, the assistance including
one or more of: modifying the first electronic task to include help
content; and modifying the first electronic task to include a
selectable link to the help content; and presenting the second
electronic task or the modified first electronic task and the
associated help content in a task list user interface.
16. The computer readable storage medium of claim 15, wherein
searching the data source for the assistance associated with the
first electronic task includes searching the data source for
application functionality for performing the first electronic task;
and wherein providing the assistance associated with the first
electronic task includes launching the application functionality
for performing the first electronic task.
17. The computer readable storage medium of claim 15, wherein
searching the data source for the assistance associated with the
first electronic task includes searching the data source for the
help content associated with the first electronic task; and
presenting the modified first electronic task and the associated
help content in the task list user interface.
18. The computer readable storage medium of claim 15, wherein using
the text string of the first electronic task as a search phrase for
searching the data source includes matching one or more words
parsed from the text string against a list of predefined words for
developing a search string for searching the data source for the
assistance associated with the first electronic task.
19. A system for providing help content in association with an
electronic task, comprising: a processor; a memory coupled to the
processor; and a personal assistant application stored in the
memory, the personal assistant application is executed by the
processor to: receive a first electronic task; in response to
receiving the first electronic task, perform the following
operations: parse a text string of the first electronic task for
one or more keywords; search a data source using the one or more
keywords for assistance associated with the first electronic task;
determine whether the assistance provides for modifying the first
electronic task or for generating a new electronic task; if the
assistance provides for modifying the first electronic task, modify
the first electronic task to include the assistance in association
with the first electronic task, the assistance including one or
more of: modifying the first electronic task to include the help
content; and modifying the first electronic task to include a
selectable link to the help content; if the assistance provides for
generating the new electronic task, generate a second electronic
task that includes the assistance associated with the first
electronic task; and present the second electronic task or the
modified first electronic task and the associated help content in a
task list user interface.
20. The system of claim 19, the personal assistant application
being further operative to: search the data source for application
functionality for performing the first electronic task; and provide
the assistance associated with the first electronic task by
launching the application functionality for performing the first
electronic task.
Description
BACKGROUND
With the advent of computers and computer software, a number of
advancements have been made to help people manage both their
working and non-working lives. To help people who are trying to
juggle numerous tasks at work, at home, and in between, electronic
tasks and calendaring programs have been developed to assist with
the often daunting task of maintaining, tracking and remembering
all the things that must be accomplished on a daily basis. In
addition to the large number of tasks people typically must
accomplish on a daily basis, many tasks may be difficult to
accomplish because completion of the tasks requires help
information or assistance on various levels. For example, a simple
task of picking up flowers after work can be difficult if the user
does not know of a local or otherwise accessible florist. For
another example, a person may be working on a school or work
project, but are not sure which software application to use, for
example, a word processing application, a slide presentation
application, a spreadsheet application, or the like.
It is with respect to these and other considerations that the
present invention has been made.
SUMMARY
Embodiments of the present invention solve the above and other
problems by providing an electronic personal assistant that uses
task information to obtain task performance assistance and help
content. According to one embodiment, tasks from and electronic
tasks application may be utilized by a personal assistant
application to search a variety of information sources for actions
related to the tasks. For example, for a task of "prepare school
flyer" is in a user's task list, the personal assistant may search
available information sources and may automatically launch a
desktop publishing application and suggested template for making a
flyer to assist the user in accomplishing the task.
According to another embodiment, tasks from an electronic tasks
application may be utilized by a personal assistant application to
search a variety of information sources for help content related to
the tasks. For example, the personal assistant application may use
a task such as "pick up flowers after work" to search Internet
sites for florists in the user's local area. Once help content is
obtained, a new task may be generated or the related task may be
modified to provide the help content or to provide a link to the
help content. Alternatively, the personal assistant application may
provide the help content in a separate user interface or cause an
application from which the help content is obtained to be
launched.
The details of one or more embodiments are set forth in the
accompanying drawings and description below. Other features and
advantages will be apparent from a reading of the following
detailed description and a review of the associated drawings. It is
to be understood that the following detailed description is
explanatory only and is not restrictive of the invention as
claimed.
This summary is provided to introduce a selection of concepts in a
simplified form that are further described below in the detailed
description. This summary is not intended to identify key features
or essential features of the claimed subject matter, nor is it
intended as an aid in determining the scope of the claimed subject
matter.
BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS
FIG. 1 is a simplified block diagram illustrating a list authoring
surface user interface deployed on a display screen of a computer
monitor.
FIG. 2 is a simplified block diagram illustrating a list authoring
surface user interface populated with one or more tasks, events,
activities, or pieces of information deployed on a display screen
of a computer monitor.
FIG. 3 is a simplified block diagram of the list authoring surface
user interface of FIG. 2 showing a list of information pivoting out
from a selected task item.
FIG. 4 is a simplified block diagram of a computing architecture in
which embodiments of the present invention may be practiced.
FIG. 5 is a simplified block diagram illustrating a list authoring
surface user interface displayed in association with a displayed
document.
FIG. 6 is a simplified block diagram illustrating a mobile
computing device and illustrating a list authoring surface user
interface deployed on a display screen of the mobile computing
device.
FIG. 7 is a simplified block diagram illustrating a mobile
computing device and illustrating a list authoring surface user
interface deployed on a display screen of the mobile computing
device.
FIG. 8 is a simplified block diagram illustrating an architectural
framework for a personal assistant application for obtaining help
content in association with one or more tasks.
FIG. 9 is a flowchart illustrating a method for providing help
content in association with one or more tasks.
FIG. 10 is a simplified block diagram of a computing system in
which embodiments of the invention may be practiced.
DETAILED DESCRIPTION
The following detailed description refers to the accompanying
drawings. Wherever possible, the same reference numbers are used in
the drawing and the following description to refer to the same or
similar elements. While embodiments of the invention may be
described, modifications, adaptations, and other implementations
are possible. For example, substitutions, additions, or
modifications may be made to the elements illustrated in the
drawings, and the methods described herein may be modified by
substituting, reordering, or adding stages to the disclosed
methods. Accordingly, the following detailed description does not
limit the invention, but instead, the proper scope of the invention
is defined by the appended claims.
As briefly described above, embodiments of the present invention
are directed to an electronic personal assistant that uses task
information to obtain help content. Tasks from an electronic tasks
application may be utilized by a personal assistant application to
search a variety of information sources for help content related to
the tasks. Once help content is obtained, a new task may be
generated or the related task may be modified to provide the help
content or to provide a link to the help content.
FIG. 1 is a simplified block diagram illustrating the list
authoring surface user interface deployed on a display screen of a
computer monitor. The list authoring surface includes a lightweight
user interface 120 (also referred to herein as a list user
interface) that may be deployed across a number of software
applications and that may be displayed on stationary and/or mobile
computing device desktops or display areas. For example, as
illustrated in FIG. 1, the list authoring surface user interface
(LASUI) is shown deployed on a display screen 105 of a stationary
computer monitor. As should be appreciated, the display screen 105
may be illustrative of a display space associated with a computer
operating system, or a display space associated with one or more
software applications, for example, word processing applications,
spreadsheet applications, slide presentation applications, notes
applications, calendaring applications, contacts applications, and
the like. A row of functions/buttons 110 is illustrated at the
bottom edge of the display screen 105 for providing access to one
or more functionalities associated with an example software
application or operating system. As should be appreciated, the
configuration and location of user interface components illustrated
in FIG. 1 are for purposes of example only and are not limiting of
other configurations that may be possible. That is, the LASUI 120
may be deployed along an upper edge of the display screen 105, as
illustrated in FIG. 1, or the LASUI 120 may be deployed at other
locations in the display screen as required by a user for effective
utilization of the display screen.
According to embodiments, the list user interface 120 of the list
authoring surface may be utilized as an electronic note, scrap of
paper, note pad, "sticky" note, and the like that is associated
with one or more software application displays for entering either
manually or automatically list items, such as tasks, events,
activities or other pieces of information, that a user might
otherwise jot down on a piece of paper, note or other media for
keeping in the forefront such information considered important to
the user or for reminding the user. In addition to entering
information into the user interface 120, the user interface 120 may
be used for quick capture of information from opened documents and
in association with opened applications so that the user does not
have to leave a current application to launch a task entry user
interface. Indeed, the list authoring surface UI 120 may be
associated with a variety of electronic files, such as electronic
documents, electronic mail items, contacts items, social networking
information, and the like.
As illustrated in FIG. 1, one or more functionality buttons or
controls 125, 130, 135, 140 may be provided in the list authoring
surface UI 120 for editing or otherwise manipulating information
contained in the UI 120. For example, a control 125 may be utilized
for "checking off" completed tasks, a control 130 may be utilized
for adding additional tasks, events or other information, a control
135 may be utilized for importing information or for annotating
information to be stored or displayed in the user interface 120,
and a variety of other controls 140 may be provided for other types
of editing, sorting, filtering, searching, and the like information
contained in the user interface 120.
According to an embodiment, one such control may be used to set the
computer with which the list authoring surface is utilized to a "do
not disturb" mode so no new email items, instant messaging (IM)
items, or other distractions would come to the list authoring
surface when the "do not disturb" mode is activated. Another such
control 140 may allow a "snooze" mode to be applied to the task
currently displayed so that a new task could be displayed instead
and so that a user would not have to decide what to do with respect
to the "snooze" task. That is, the user could hold the task by
applying the "snooze" mode. In addition, the "snooze" mode may be
used to filter out information not relevant to the current task
only. For example, if a user applies the "snooze" mode to a task of
"Plan morale event," and if the user's current task is "Redesign
product," and the user gets an email from his/her supervisor about
this project, the email about the task of "Redesign project" may be
displayed, but emails about the "Plan morale event" task may not be
displayed to the user.
Referring now to FIG. 2, the list authoring surface user interface
120 is illustrated in an expanded form showing a variety of list
items, for example, tasks, events, activities or other pieces of
information, that have been entered either manually or
automatically through information capture into the list authoring
surface. For example, a first entry 220 of "Turn off sprinkler
system" is illustrative of a task a user may enter into the list
authoring surface user interface 120 to remind the user to handle
this task when he returns home. For another example, a second entry
225 of "Redesign product" is illustrated having a number of
subtasks 230 associated with the main task 225. Items displayed in
the LAS UI 120 may be displayed according to one or more specified
display arrangements, for example, based on designated time of
performance, most recent on top, top 5 items as designated by a
user, and the like. Such display arrangements may also apply to
pivoted displays as described below with reference to FIG. 3.
Advantageously, entering and editing information into the list
authoring surface UI 120 is easy and efficient. For example,
information may be typed into the UI in a similar manner as
entering a bulleted list of items in a word processing document.
That is, the user may enter an item, select the "enter" key, "tab"
key, or the like, and subsequent entries will be placed in the next
row or sentence in the UI 120, but still have all of the benefits
of any applied metadata. For example, the LAS UI may be formatted
such that a simple carriage return or tab selection may create a
hierarchy in entered list items that may be beneficial to the user.
For example, the user may enter a first task of "Plan dinner
party," followed by a carriage return or tab and then the entry of
"Reserve restaurant," followed by another carriage return and the
entry "Review menu offerings." By applying a hierarchical
formatting to the entered items, the second two items may
automatically be listed beneath and indented relative to the first
item to create a displayed hierarchical relationship between the
items.
According to embodiments, once data or other information is
populated into the list authoring surface UI 120, metadata, for
example, the phrase "@Team" 235, 240 may be entered into the LAS UI
120 as one or more text entries and may be applied to key words,
key terms, key phrases, or other information components of a task
list item to allow for structuring, editing, filtering, searching,
sorting, or other automated manipulation of task list items (i.e.,
tasks, text or information) contained in the UI 120. Alternatively,
metadata items may be selected from a menu of metadata items for
application. For example, the metadata "@Team" may be applied to
the task "Meet with Contoso's team and evaluate areas in which they
could support us" to indicate that the example task is one of one
or more tasks to be completed by a given team. In contrast, the
metadata "@EricGruber" is applied to a task of "Setting up meeting
for next review" to indicate that task is associated with a
particular person.
Many other types of metadata may be applied to information in the
list authoring surface UI 120. For example, while the example "@"
symbol is used above to associate a task with a person or group,
the "#" symbol may be used for tagging a task or other information
with random metadata. For other examples, the "$" could be used to
tag monetary information, the "&" symbol could be used to tag
dates or time. As should be appreciated, any of a great number of
such metadata types and symbols could be used, and the foregoing
are for purposes of example only. Advantageously, such metadata
items may be associated with information in the list authoring
surface UI without entering another text or data entry field or
without launching any other user interface component. As also
should be appreciated, such metadata applied to various information
in the list authoring surface UI 120 will allow for sorting,
searching, filtering or otherwise manipulating the information
contained in the UI 120. For example, using the metadata "@Team"
may allow a sorting on all tasks, events, or other pieces of
information to be performed by or that are associated with the team
of personnel associated with the metadata "@Team."
In addition to using applied metadata to allow manipulation of
information in the list authoring surface UI 120, applied metadata
may also be used to add or manipulate data in other list authoring
surface Uls of other users. For example, if a first user enters or
captures a given piece of information in her list authoring surface
UI, and then applies a metadata item such as "@Sarah" to the
information, according to an embodiment, "Sarah" may now have the
tagged information automatically populated into her list authoring
surface UI so that she sees the tagged information as well.
As should be appreciated, an almost limitless amount and type of
metadata may be applied to various pieces of information entered in
the list authoring surface. For example, such metadata terms as
date, time, location, name, address, telephone number,
alphanumeric, audio, video and the like may be applied to one or
more words, phrases, data, files, and the like for allowing future
editing, sorting, searching, or manipulation of the information
contained in the list authoring surface. For example, if a metadata
type of "date" is applied to all dates contained in the list
authoring surface UI 120, such metadata may be utilized for tagging
dates contained in the UI 120 to allow a user to filter, sort, or
search data contained in the UI 120 based on date. For example, a
user may desire to sort all information contained in the UI 120 by
date to allow the user to quickly see those tasks or events that
are occurring or that should be performed today.
In addition to the application of metadata to one or more words,
phrases or other pieces of information, natural language processing
may be utilized for tagging and/or applying metadata to information
contained in the list authoring surface. For example, if a phrase
such as "Meet at Bob's Pizza Parlor at 6:00 p.m. on Friday" is
entered into the list authoring surface user interface 120 a
natural language processor may be applied to the phrase to parse
the words to determine whether any of the words are associated with
a particular information or data type. For example, each word or
combination of the words in the example task item may be parsed to
determine whether any particular information type is involved. For
example, the words "Bob's Pizza Parlor" may be tagged as a name of
a business, the time "6:00 p.m." may be tagged as a time, and the
day "Friday" may be tagged as a particular day. A natural language
processor may parse such phrases into one or more words, and the
one or more words may be used for searching dictionaries or stores
of words for matching the parsed words with various known words
such as restaurant names, times, days, and the like. Once the
natural language processor identifies certain words or phrases as
belonging to information types, those words or phrases may be
tagged with metadata so that the words or phrases may be utilized
for searching, sorting, filtering editing or otherwise manipulating
the information, as described above.
In addition to such manipulation of listed information, allowing
for acting on the listed information is equally important. For
example, functionality buttons and controls may be exposed in the
list authoring surface UI to allow actions on listed items. For
example, the listing of a contact item, such as "Bob's Pizza
Parlor" may cause the listing of a "call" button which when
selected causes a telephone program to call the listed contact, or
an "email," "text" or similar button which when selected may allow
an email or text message to be sent to the contact, etc. As should
be appreciated, many other types of action controls may be exposed
for listed items. For example, a control for adding listed names
and related information to a contacts folder may be exposed, and
the like.
In addition to natural language processing, other methods for
recognizing and utilizing particular pieces of information may be
used. For example, other methods may include, parsing text or data
and passing the parsed text or data to one or more recognizer
modules. Still other methods may include use of data analytics to
analyze all of the data on the server and show auto-complete or
other information (e.g., everyone who enters "Christmas" also
happens to tag it with "#holiday" and perhaps you the user would
like to as well). In addition, search may be used, for example,
entering "Bob's Pizza Parlor" would cause a
detection/identification by doing a search and seeing that "Bob's
Pizza Parlor" is actually a restaurant that has an associated URL
such as www.bobspizzaparlor.com.
According to embodiments, in addition to metadata tags, other list
item attributes, including other forms of metadata, may be applied
to list items entered into the list authoring surface. For example,
list item attributes, such as team attribute, person attribute,
date attribute, time attribute, location attribute, name attribute,
address attribute, telephone number attribute, alphanumeric
attribute, audio attribute, video attribute, and the like may be
applied to a given list item. As should be appreciated, the list
item attributes may be extensible and customizable, for example,
price attributes, location in a store of items on a purchase list,
etc. For example, a list item of "@Team1Meet at 2:00 pm to discuss
project" may be additionally annotated with a list item attribute
of a person's name, such as "Joe," to create a modified list item
of "@Team1Meet at Joe's office at 2:00 pm to discuss project." The
list authoring surface may then associate the first metadata item
of "@Team" with the list item attributes of "2:00 pm" and/or "Joe's
office" to generate a task for display in the list user interface
120 of all users who are members of "@Team1.". Association of such
metadata items and list item attributes may allow the task to be
used more effectively. For example, the resulting task item, may
allow the list authoring surface to retrieve information about the
members of "Team1," for example, calendaring information to
determine whether the members are available at "2:00 pm," and/or
the list authoring surface may retrieve contact information to
determine the location of "Joe's office." Such information may be
automatically added to the list authoring surface 120 as a pivot
item out from the resulting task. As should be appreciated, these
are only examples of the many ways in which metadata items and
other list item attributes may be associated to enhance the
effectiveness of task items in the list authoring surface.
Information entered into the list authoring surface UI 120 and
tagged or grouped according to one or more metadata types, list
item attributes or in association with a natural language
processor, as described above, may then be utilized in a variety of
helpful ways, including generation and display of resulting tasks.
For example, date and/or time annotation or tagging applied to
tasks, events, activities or other pieces of information (hereafter
referred to as "tasks") may be utilized for manipulating, e.g.,
editing, sorting, searching, or otherwise manipulating, tasks and
related information contained in the list authoring surface
according to any applied metadata or list item attributes, e.g.,
date/time, people, teams, etc. In addition, tasks annotated with a
date and/or time metadata may be organized in an events timeline
and may be further annotated to help the user accomplish or
otherwise handle tasks along a prescribed timeline. As referred to
herein, timeline may be broadly defined to include any time
representation, including dates, times, calendar information,
seasons, years, etc. For example, certain tasks may have hard
deadlines, for example, a doctor's appointment on a specific date
and time that may not be moved by the user.
Other tasks may require accomplishment or handling during a
prescribed date/time range, for example, some time on Friday before
6:00 p.m. According to embodiments of the invention, such date
and/or timing information may be applied to tasks entered into the
list authoring surface user interface 120 to apply a "fuzziness" to
the timing aspect of tasks contained in the user interface. For
example, if on a given day two tasks must be accomplished or
otherwise handled at very specific times, then those tasks may be
annotated with metadata allowing the user to sort, search or
otherwise manipulate those items based on the hard dates/times
applied. On the other hand, if one or more other tasks must be
completed on the same day, but may be completed at any time up to a
given end time, for example, 6:00 p.m., then those tasks may be
annotated with a metadata type allowing those items to move in the
events timeline associated with tasks that must be accomplished or
otherwise handled on the prescribed day so long as the times for
accomplishing or otherwise handling those items do not go beyond a
prescribed outer time limit, for example, 6:00 p.m. For another
example, if a user wants to mow his/her lawn in the morning and go
to a specific restaurant that evening, the list authoring surface
may allow capturing times like "Morning" and "Evening" in the same
way that using a paper calendar they may put the mowing activity
towards the top of the box for that day and the restaurant name
towards the bottom of the box for that day without a specific time
for either. According to an embodiment, then, sorting, searching or
otherwise manipulating list items contained in the list authoring
surface UI 120 may be accomplished on list items having hard
date/times, or may be accomplished on list items having soft or
fuzzy date/times, or a combination thereof.
The list authoring surface UI 120 may provide reminders to the user
to accomplish or otherwise handle tasks contained in the list
authoring surface UI 120, and the inclusion of metadata associated
with hard dates/times and metadata associated with soft or fuzzy
dates/times may be utilized for providing a more realistic
experience to the user. For example, a reminder of an upcoming hard
date/time, for example, a specific appointment, may be of one
variety of reminder and a reminder associated with a soft or fuzzy
date/time may be of a different type of reminder that is less
urgent in comparison to a reminder associated with a hard
date/time. In addition, tasks associated with a soft or fuzzy
date/time may be automatically floated through a given day's
schedule until a prescribed end point, for example, no later than
6:00 p.m. is approached. Thus, the reminders associated with hard
date/time items as compared to soft or fuzzy date/time items may be
accomplished in a way that more closely approximates how a user
might remind himself or herself of such items by jotting the items
down on a scrap of paper, notepad, sticky note, and the like.
As described in further detail below, the list authoring surface
user interface 120 may be deployed in association with a multitude
of software applications and data associated with different
software application types. For example, the list authoring surface
may be utilized for receiving information from or capturing
information from a variety of electronic files, such as word
processing documents, spreadsheet application documents, slide
presentation application slides, Internet browser content, social
media site content, video applications, audio applications,
electronic inking, for example, handwriting electronically with a
stylus and electronic writing pad, photographs, electronic mail
items, calendar items, task items from other tasks, speech-to-text
files, and the like. In addition, information stored for the list
authoring surface may be utilized by other applications for
enhancing the functionality of the list authoring surface.
Consider the example entered or captured task in the form of the
phrase "Meet at Bob's Pizza Parlor at 6:00 p.m. on Friday." Once
individual words or phrases in the entry are parsed, recognized,
annotated, or otherwise tagged with metadata as described above,
those tagged items may be utilized by other applications to enhance
the functionality of the list authoring surface. For example, the
business name of "Bob's Pizza Parlor" may be passed to a software
application for determining a location of Bob's Pizza Parlor. The
location of Bob's Pizza Parlor may in turn be passed to a global
positioning system (GPS) mechanism of the user's global device, for
example, a phone, personal digital assistant, etc., the time
associated with the entry of "6:00 p.m. on Friday" may be passed to
a calendar function utilized by the user, and any other words or
phrases of interest in the phrase may be thus utilized. Now,
following with this example, if the user leaves his or her office
and is utilizing a mobile device, to which he has deployed the list
authoring surface UI 120, as will be described below, as the user
approaches the location of the example "Bob's Pizza Parlor" or as
the user approaches the designated time of "6:00 p.m. on Friday,"
or a combination of the two, a reminder may be provided to the user
via his mobile device that the time for meeting at "Bob's Pizza
Parlor" is approaching, or that the location of "Bob's Pizza
Parlor" is approaching, or of a combination of the above. Use of
presence data (for example, location of a mobile device as
determined by signal strength or GPS positioning) may also be used
to relate information or task reminders in the list authoring
surface to other pertinent information, such as calendar items,
meeting locations, etc. In addition, if the meeting reminder is
associated with a particular person or group of persons, the list
authoring surface may query a contacts application for contacts
information for the person or persons and make that information
available through the list authoring surface UI 120.
For another example, if a user enters a task associated with the
editing of a particular portion of a given word processing
document, metadata associated with an identification of the
particular document may be applied to the task entered into the
list authoring surface user interface 120. When the user next opens
the specified word processing document, a reminder may surface in
the list authoring surface UI 120 to remind the user that a
particular paragraph in the word processing document should be
edited. According to one embodiment, if such a document is not
already opened, if the user sees a reminder to edit an identified
document, the document may be opened directly from the list
authoring surface UI 120 by selecting the document identified in
the UI 120.
Referring still to FIG. 2, one or more functionality buttons and
controls may be exposed in the user interface 120, in addition to
those described above with reference to FIG. 1. A reminder function
210 may allow a user to mark a given task or information item in
the UI 120 for setting a desired reminder date/time. A private
notification function 215 may allow a user to mark a given task or
information item as "private" so that the task or information item
is not exposed to other users via their list authoring surface user
interfaces. As should be appreciated, the functions 210 and 215 are
only examples of the many functions that may be exposed in the list
authoring surface UI 120 for applying useful metadata or function
to tasks or information items listed in the UI 120.
FIG. 3 is a simplified block diagram of the list authoring surface
list user interface of FIG. 2 showing a list of information
pivoting out from a selected task item. As should be appreciated,
for any individual task or other piece of information entered into
the list authoring surface, one or more subtasks, sub events, or
sub items of information may be entered and associated with any
previously entered tasks. For example, referring to FIG. 3 a
variety of tasks or other pieces of information 315, 320, have been
entered in association with a parent task 225 of "Redesign
product." According to an embodiment, selection of the parent task
225 allows for the launching of a pivot table 310 within the list
authoring surface user interface 120 for displaying the subtasks
315, 320 associated with the parent task 225. A "More" button 330
is illustrated for allowing a display of additional subtasks 315,
320 under the selected parent subtask 225 if the available size of
the user interface 120 only provides for an initial display of a
fixed number of tasks, events, activities or other pieces of
information. According to one embodiment, a specified maximum
number of displayed subtasks, for example five subtasks, may be
displayed to keep the user's focus on a "top" number of important
tasks. As should be appreciated, subtask information displayed in
the pivot table 310 may be filtered, searched, sorted, or otherwise
manipulated as is the case with information contained in the main
user interface 120.
FIG. 4 is a simplified block diagram of a computing architecture in
which embodiments of the present invention may be practiced.
Referring to FIG. 4, the desktop or laptop computer 405 is
illustrative of any stationary computing device utilized by a user
for entering, capturing or otherwise utilizing data in association
with the list authoring surface described herein. The mobile device
for 410 is illustrative of a mobile telephone, personal digital
assistant, wirelessly connected laptop computer or any other
computing device with which a user may utilize the list authoring
surface in a mobile environment. The distributed computing network
415 is illustrative of any suitable means for allowing the
computing devices 405, 410 to communicate with one or more
applications or databases via a remote server 420, for example, the
Internet, a corporate intranet, a home-based intranet, and the
like.
The server 420 is illustrative of a general purpose computing
device operating as a remote server on which the functionality of
the list authoring surface may be maintained for allowing the list
authoring surface to follow the user from one device 405 to another
device 405 to a mobile device 410, or to any other device on which
the list authoring surface UI 120 may be deployed for use as
described herein. According to an embodiment, all functionality and
data storage associated with the list authoring surface and the
associated user interface 120 may take the form of a list authoring
surface application or module 100 having sufficient
computer-executable instructions for performing the functions
described herein. The list authoring surface application or module
100 may be resident on a single computing device 405 or 410 for use
in association with data accessible by the devices 405 and 410.
Alternatively, the functionality and associated data for the list
authoring surface and its associated user interface 120 may be
maintained and operated at the remote server 420, as illustrated in
FIG. 4.
The list 425 is illustrative of a database list or table accessible
by the device 405 or 410 locally or via the server 420 where
information entered manually or automatically into the list
authoring surface and displayed via the associated user interface
420 is maintained. As should be appreciated, if the user is not in
a distributed computing environment, the list 425 and associated
stored data may be stored or cached on a local computing device
405, 410. That is, according to an embodiment, each instantiation
of the list authoring surface may cause the generation of a list
table 425 maintained in a database stored locally on the computing
device 405, 410 or stored in association with the server 420.
In the list 425, each task, event, activity, or other piece of
information may be assigned to and stored in a given line in the
list 425. In addition to storing each individual entry, information
identifying annotations applied to individual entries, for example,
metadata, or other identifying information may be stored in the
list 425 with the associated information entry. Moreover, if the
information is associated with other data, for example, a document,
calendar item, electronic mail entry, or if an entry is associated
with other information, for example, global positioning system
location data, date/time data, and the like, information
identifying such associations may also be stored on a line in the
list 425 or linked to a different list 425 with each associated
task, event, activity or other piece of information entered
manually or automatically into the list authoring surface. As new
data is added to the list authoring surface user interface, or as
data is changed in the list authoring surface, or as data contained
in the list authoring surface is associated with other information,
the data stored in list 425 is updated. According to alternative
embodiments, the list items 425 and associated data may be stored
according to a variety of different means aside from a data base
line described above. For example, the list items and associated
data may be stored as extensible markup language (XML)
representations or similar representations across multiple linked
lists, tables and the like that are available to or accessible by
the list authoring surface.
Referring still to FIG. 4, a variety of information sources
available to the list authoring surface are illustrated. For
example, information from a contacts application or database 430
may be utilized for obtaining information for entry into the list
authoring surface. Information from a calendaring application 435
and associated data storage may similarly be obtained. As will be
described below with reference to FIG. 6, information from an
electronic mail application and associated content 440 may be
utilized for populating the list authoring surface. Information
from a variety of documents 445, for example, word processing
documents, slide presentation documents, spreadsheet application
documents, and the like may be utilized for population of data into
the list authoring surface. An ink application 450 is illustrative
of an electronic pen and ink application for allowing data entry,
for example, through contact of a stylus with an electronic writing
pad. Photos applications/storage 455 is illustrative of any
application or data storage through which photographs may be
obtained and copied or moved to the list authoring surface. The
audio/video application and storage 460 is illustrative of one or
more means for obtaining audio or video files, for example, a
recording mechanism operated through a digital or analog recording
device or camera such as might be available through a mobile
telephone and the like. Content for the list authoring surface may
also come from Internet browsers, social media sites, or other
sources 465. As should be appreciated, data and information from
any other available source for electronically moving or copying or
otherwise entering data may be utilized for populating the list
authoring surface and its associated user interface 120 with tasks,
events or other information of interest.
While the various data or information illustrated in FIG. 4 are
illustrated in association with the server 420, each of these
sources of data and/or information may also be directly associated
with and/or stored at local computing devices 405, 410. In
addition, according to embodiments, information from one or more
sources to the list authoring surface is not a one-way
communication. That is, according to embodiments, the list
authoring surface and/or individual task lists or task list items
may be linked to the source from which task list items were
obtained (e.g., a word processing document), and information from
the task list may be pushed back to the source. For example, if a
piece of information in the form of a task item is in the LAS UI
120, that information may be pushed back to a source from which it
came. As should be appreciated, a variety of mechanisms may be
utilized for pushing information back to the source. A path to the
source may be associated with each respective task list item. A
selection of the task list item may cause exposure in the LAS UI
120 of a selectable button or control for pushing the selected item
back to the source and/or for launching the source document.
FIG. 5 is a simplified block diagram illustrating a list authoring
surface interface and a list authoring surface information input
component in association with a displayed document. As described
above, information may be entered into the list authoring surface
user interface 120 manually or automatically through information
capture as described below. As illustrated in FIG. 5, an example
document 530 is illustrated displayed on the computer monitor
display screen 500 in association with an example word processing
application. According to embodiments of the invention, an expanded
version of the list authoring service user interface 120 may be
deployed as illustrated and described above with respect to FIGS. 2
and 3 for entering any desired information including information
about or associated with a displayed document 530.
According to another embodiment, a list authoring surface
information input component 510 may be deployed in association with
the list authoring surface user interface 120 for entering and
annotating data about a given task or information item in the list
authoring surface UI 120. According to the example illustrated in
FIG. 5, the list authoring surface information input component 510
has been launched in association with the task "Redesign product"
and displayed in the list authoring surface UI 120. The list
authoring surface information input component 510 includes a title
section for providing data to identify the information being
entered in association with a given task, event or other piece of
information included in the list authoring surface. For example,
the list authoring surface information input component 510,
illustrated in FIG. 5, is identified in association with the task
of "Prepare vendor proposal" which is a subtask of the parent task
"Redesign product." Underneath the title portion of the list
authoring surface information input component 510 is a comment
section 520 for allowing a user to enter comments which may be
additional tasks, events, activities or other information
associated with the example subtask. For example, the comments
entered in the comments section 520 may be subtasks to the subtask
"Prepare vendor proposal," or the comments entered in the comments
section 520 may simply be comments to remind the user of various
aspects of the associated subtask.
A content section 525 is provided for allowing other content items,
for example, documents, audio files, video files, or other content
types to be associated with the example task or subtask. A "people"
section is illustrated at the bottom of the list authoring surface
information input component 510 for associating one or more people,
groups of people or teams with the subtask. For example, as was
described and illustrated above with respect to FIG. 2, a team
grouping that may be utilized in association with a metadata tag of
"@Team" may be applied to a given task or subtask. Other groupings
or individual persons may similarly be associated with one or more
tasks or subtasks entered into the list authoring surface and its
associated UI 120. As should be appreciated, the configuration,
layout and fields illustrated in the list authoring surface
information input component 510 are for purposes of example only
and are not limiting of other text, data entry or data annotating
fields or sections that may be provided in the list authoring
surface information input component 510.
Referring still to FIG. 5, the document 530 displayed on the
display screen 500 is illustrative of any document, such as a word
processing document, spreadsheet document, slide presentation
document, notes document, tasks document, calendaring document, and
the like that may be displayed on the display screen 500. As is
illustrated in FIG. 5, the document 530 is being processed in some
manner by a user, and the user decides to enter information into
the list authoring surface via the list authoring surface
information input component 510 about the displayed document. For
example, as the user is editing the displayed document, the user
may remember that one or more tasks should be performed in
association with the project referenced in the displayed document.
Thus, by launching the list authoring surface user interface 120
and subsequently launching the list authoring surface information
input component 510, the user may insert tasks, comments, content
items or associate the document or portions of the document or
tasks associated with the document with one or more people, groups
or teams of people just as the user might handwrite such notes or
annotations on a scrap of paper or sticky note to remind the user
subsequently to deal with those matters. According to an alternate
embodiment, entering tasks or other information into the LAS UI 120
while a document 530 is opened may cause tasks or other information
entered into the UI 120 to be automatically associated with the
document (i.e., metadata representing the document may be applied
to the entered tasks or other information).
As illustrated and described above with reference to FIG. 4, the
list authoring surface and its associated user interface 120 may be
utilized in a stationary computing system 405, or the list
authoring surface may be utilized in association with one or more
mobile devices 410. Advantageously, information stored in the list
authoring surface in the list 425 in association with the server
420 may be deployed across a variety of applications, as described
herein, and may be deployed on a user's mobile device when the user
is on the go. Thus, the list authoring surface allows the user to,
in effect, carry an electronic version of a "To do" list when the
user leaves the desktop operating environment by having the list
authoring surface and its associated user interface 120 deployed on
his or her mobile computing device, such as a mobile telephone,
personal digital assistant, wireless gaming device, and the
like.
According to embodiments, the list user interface may be imported
to the stationary computing device 405 and to the mobile computing
device 410 from the remote server 420. When tasks are displayed in
the list user interface, an instantiation of the list user
interface may be displayed on the stationary computing device and
on the mobile computing device. When changes are made to tasks in
the list user interface at the remote server, the changes are
passed to the stationary and mobile devices in the form of new
instantiations of the list user interface displayed on the
stationary computing device and on the mobile computing device. In
addition, when changes are made to tasks in the list authoring
surface UI 120 at either the stationary or mobile computing
devices, such changes may be passed up to the list authoring
surface and associated data storage at the remote server 420.
FIGS. 6 and 7 illustrate use of the list authoring surface and its
associated user interface in a mobile environment. As illustrated
in FIG. 6, the list authoring surface user interface 620 is
illustrative of a mobile version of the list authoring surface UI
120, described above, deployed on the display screen 615 of a
mobile telephone 410. Just as the user may deploy the list
authoring surface user interface 120 on a display screen of his or
her computer or laptop, as described above, with reference to FIGS.
1 through 7, so can the user deploy the list authoring surface user
interface 620 on his or her mobile device to utilize the same
functionality as may be utilized in a stationary computing
environment.
Referring to FIG. 7, if the user launches the list authoring
surface user interface 620, illustrated in FIG. 6, the "To do" list
625 may be launched on the display screen of the user's mobile
device to allow the user to review one or more tasks, events,
activities or other information or to allow the user to enter
additional information 715, edit existing information, or otherwise
manipulate existing information. If the user does edit or otherwise
manipulate information contained in the list authoring surface user
interface via his or her mobile device, the modified information
may be stored at the list 425 via the server 420, and the next time
the user deploys the list authoring surface user interface 120 on
his or her stationary computing device, those changes or
modifications made to information contained therein via the user's
mobile device will appear in the user interface 120 deployed with
respect to one or more other applications in the user's stationary
computing environment.
In addition, the mobile device 410 may be utilized for quick
capture of information that may be exported directly to the list
authoring surface, as described below. For example, a camera
function of a mobile telephone may be utilized for taking a
photograph that may be automatically imported to the list authoring
surface. For another example, global positioning system (GPS) data
from the mobile device 410 may be captured with respect to a
particular location or address and may be imported to the list
authoring surface.
As briefly described above, according to one embodiment, a personal
assistant application may use tasks stored in the list authoring
surface for searching for task performance assistance that may be
provided to a user in association with one or more tasks. For
example, if the user has a task of "prepare resume," the personal
assistant application may parse the language of the task and use
information components of the task, such as keywords (e.g.,
"resume"), key phrases, alphanumeric strings, etc. to obtain
information associated with the task. If the personal assistant,
using a search mechanism described below, locates a suggested
"resume" template that may be used with a word processing
application, then the personal assistant may automatically or after
a suggestion/acceptance to/from the user launch a word processing
application and the suggested template when the time for performing
the task occurs or if the user selects the task or otherwise
filters the task to the forefront for performance. For another
example, for a task of "call Bob," the personal assistant may use
natural language processing or other method for recognizing words
or phrases to determine that a call should be placed to Bob. By
searching for a telephone number for "Bob" in the user's contacts
files or via a telephone directory system and by automatically
activating a calling program available to the personal assistant
application, the call may be made for the user. If desired third
party providers of such task performance functionality may sell the
functionality to the user as part of the offering by the personal
assistant application 810.
According another embodiment, the personal assistant application
may use tasks stored in the list authoring surface for searching
for help content, advertising or other helpful information that may
be provided to a user in association with one or more tasks. For
example, if the user has a task of "pick up flowers after work",
the personal assistant application of the present invention may
parse the language of the task for one or more keywords, key
phrases, alpha numeric items, etc. The keywords, key phrases, or
alpha numeric entries may then be passed to a search mechanism, for
example, an Internet-based search application for obtaining help
content, advertising, or other helpful information that may be
passed to the user in the form of a new or modified task or in the
form of displayed help content. In addition to a search mechanism,
the personal assistant my perform a comparison of a keyword to a
list of known or predefined words, for example, "call," "email,"
"print," "create document," "pick up," "flowers," etc. That is,
simple mappings of parsed words or phrases may be made against
known words or phrases.
Following with the above example, if the task of "pick up flowers
after work" is provided, information extracted from the task phrase
by the personal assistant application may be utilized for searching
for florists in the user's local area, for getting location or
telephone information for such florists, for obtaining advertising
information for such florists and the like. Thus, the personal
assistant application enhances the usefulness of the tasks by
providing contextual help information associated with the tasks. In
addition to providing basic information, such as advertising
information, an action mechanism may be provided as described
above. For example, an application for allowing the user to order
flowers electronically may be automatically launched for the user,
and instead of an advertisement being information only, the
advertisement could take the form of a functional tool with which
the user could perform an action, such as the example ordering of
flowers.
FIG. 8 is a simplified block diagram illustrating an architectural
framework for a personal assistant application for obtaining help
content in association with one or more tasks as described herein.
In FIG. 8, the tasks 805 are illustrative of one or more tasks
stored, entered, or generated for or on behalf of a user, such as
the task list items contained in the list authoring surface as
described above with respect to FIGS. 1 through 7. Alternatively,
the tasks 805 may be electronic tasks entered or generated by or on
behalf of the user through any other electronic calendar or tasks
application operative to allow the generation, presentation, or
other utilization of one or more electronic task items.
The personal assistant application 810 is a software application
module operative to utilize one or more tasks 805 for conducting
searches for task performance assistance and help content
associated with one or more tasks in association with the help
action/content provision module 845, described below. According to
an embodiment, the personal assistant application 810 and the help
action/content provision module 845 may operate as standalone
application modules or as part of a larger application such as the
list authoring surface 100.
According to one embodiment, the personal assistant application 810
may utilize natural language processing for parsing a task such as
"pick up flowers after work" into one or more keywords, key terms,
or key phrases that, in turn, may be utilized for searching help
content sites, including Internet-based sites, application-based
help content services, and the like. Alternatively, the personal
assistant application 810 may utilize a recognition system wherein
a phrase such as "pick up flowers after work" is parsed into
individual words, and the individual words are compared against
dictionaries or lists of words for recognition, as described above.
Once a given word or phrase is recognized, for example, "call Bob,"
the recognized portion of the text, for example, "call" and "Bob"
may be utilized for searching for help content, for example, a
telephone number for "Bob" through a given help content source,
and/or for providing performance assistance, for example,
automatically activating a phone application to place the call for
the user.
The information sources 815, 820, 825, 830, 835, 840 are
illustrative of one or more source of information and functionality
that may be utilized by the personal assistant application 810 for
obtaining helpful information and task performance assistance
associated with a given task. For example, words, terms or phrases
parsed from given task by the personal assistant application 810
may be automatically entered into an Internet-based search engine,
for example, BING manufactured by MICROSOFT CORPORATION, for
searching for helpful information associated with a given task. For
example, for the task of "pick up flowers after work," the personal
assistant application 810 may use the word "flowers" and a known
location for the user's computing device to enter a search string
into an Internet-based search engine for obtaining advertisements,
reviews, locations, hours of operation, or other information about
one or more florists in the user's area. For another example, if
the user is planning a complex social event, for example, a
wedding, graduation party, and the like, keywords or phrases from
an associated task may be utilized for conducting an Internet-based
search for obtaining helpful information on how to organize and
conduct such social events.
In addition to obtaining performance assistance functionality and
help content based on the context of one or more tasks, assistance
and help may also be obtained based on user preferences. That is,
as part of the process of searching for performance assistance
functionality and help content, the personal assistant application
may also search a preference store or service for information about
the user's preferences. Such an information store may include the
list authoring surface and related data associated with previous or
current tasks. For example, if the user has a task of "Buy
toothpaste," the personal assistant application may search previous
tasks, shopping lists and the like to determine that the user
typically buys brand "ABC." Instead of searching for application
functionality or help content associated with toothpaste in
general, the personal assistant may return information about brand
"ABC" and the personal assistant application 810 may provide
functionality, for example, automatically ordering brand "ABC" for
delivery to the user.
In addition to providing the helpful information, if performance of
the task may be accomplished through some type of application
functionality 840, then the helpful information may be combined
with the appropriate application functionality 840 for automatic
presentation to the user. For example, for the example planning of
a complex social event, in addition to help content on how to plan
such an event, a web based application for preparing invitations or
for developing guest lists or for developing menus and the like may
be automatically launched for the user in association with the
task. In addition, a variety of local applications, such as word
processing applications, slide presentation applications,
spreadsheet applications, desktop publishing applications, and the
like may be automatically launched by the personal assistant
application for helping the user to perform the task.
Other tasks 820 may be utilized by the personal assistant
application for comparing a parsed task with information contained
or associated with other tasks for providing helpful information in
the form of an association of a given task with other tasks. Other
"To Do" lists 825 is illustrative of the "to do" lists or task
lists of other users, wherein the personal assistant application
810 may gather information associated with other users' task lists
for providing to the present user. For example, if another user
utilizes a particular florist, and that information may be gleaned
from the other user's task lists, then that information may be
obtained and may be offered to the present user in association with
the present user's task. In addition, "syndicated" "To Do" lists
may be offered or sold by third parties, for example, specialized
"To Do" lists for planning a wedding or building a house or best
things to pack for a camping trip may be provided via the "To Do
Lists" 825. The "My To Do" lists 830 is illustrative of a source of
the present user's own to tasks that may be utilized for finding
information that may be helpful to the user in association with a
present task. For example, the user may have had a holiday gift
card list in a "to do" list item he/she utilized six months ago.
The personal assistant application 810 may find that holiday gift
card list and offer that list to the user in association with a
present task or otherwise use that information to modify the
present task or to generate a new task, as described below.
The templates source 835 is illustrative of help information in the
form of helpful templates or other help content that may be offered
to a user in association with a parsed task. For one example,
helpful templates may be in the form of "list templates" that could
be copied or automatically imported into the LAS UI 120 to help the
user build task lists (e.g., packing list template or building
house template). That is, in response to the user entering a task
if "Prepare packing list," the personal assistant application may
find and import into the LAS UI 120 a template for building a
packing list. For another example, if the user has a task 805 of
"learn how to complete IRS tax Form 1040," keywords such as "Form
1040" may be utilized by the personal assistant application 810 for
performing a search, for example, an Internet-based search of the
Internal Revenue Service's help site, or such keywords may be
entered into a help application for obtaining "how to" forms,
templates, and the like.
As should be appreciated any of a variety of other help sources,
including application-based help sources may be utilized by the
personal assistant application. For example, if a user has a task
of "Print resume before interview," a search for help content and
functionality may cause the personal assistant application to
surface a "Do it now" button or control (or similar functional
command feature) in the list authoring surface UI 120 which would
cause the personal assistant application to parse the text and
actually print the resume (for example, it could search the user's
hard drive for the most recently edited document named "resume" and
then print it).
The application functionality 840 is illustrative of any
application functionality available either locally or remotely to
the personal assistant application 810 for automatically providing
functionality as described herein. As should be appreciated the
help content sources and functionality illustrated in FIG. 8 are
for purposes of example and are not limiting of the vast numbers
and types of help content sources or information sources and
functionality sources that may be queried by the personal assistant
application 810 for assisting the user in association with one or
more tasks, as described herein.
The action/help content provision module 845 is illustrative of a
software application module or component of the personal assistant
application 810 for supplying the obtained action (performance
assistance) or help content to the user. According to one
embodiment, the module may provide the helpful actions, such a
launching an application functionality, placing a call, etc. as
described above, or the module may cause the provision of help
content as described above. According to another embodiment, the
personal assistant application 810 via the module 840 may utilize
the obtained information to modify an existing task. For example,
an existing task of "pick up flowers after work" may be modified by
the personal assistant application to "Pick up flowers after work
at ABC Florist on Fourth and Main Streets." Or, the task may be
modified to provide a link to the help content. For example, a link
to the ABC Florist Company may be provided in line with the
associated task to allow the user to select or click on the link to
obtain advertising information about the florist, location
information, contact information, and the like. Or, the associated
task may be modified to provide an advertisement, or other help
information in line with the task, and/or the additional
information may be displayed in the user interface 120 along with
the task. Alternatively, the helpful information may be provided in
a pivot table or drop down or fly out menu provided in response to
selection of the task from the user interface 120. Or, according to
one embodiment, the personal assistant application 810 via the
module 840 could completely perform the task, for example, finding
and printing a document in association with the task "print
document."
In addition to modifying a given task, the personal assistant
application 810, in association with the list authoring surface,
may generate a new task altogether. For example, if a given task of
"learn how to operate the print function of my word processing
application" is used to obtain help content about the operations of
the user's word processing application, a new task of "review
operating procedures for your word processing application" may be
generated and may be populated into the list authoring surface and
into the associated list authoring surface user interface 120. As
described above, in association with such a task, a template for
building a list of subtasks for the main task may also be
provided.
According to one embodiment, information from a task or from help
content obtained by the personal assistant application 810 may be
processed by one or more helpful applications or services to
further assist the user. For example, addresses, telephone numbers,
and the like gathered in association with help content may be
passed to a location system, for example, a GPS system, for
obtaining directions to a business or other facility or entity that
is responsive or associated with the help content.
Provision of help content as described above may be done
automatically by the personal assistant application 810, or the
help content may be provided as a suggestion to the user, and the
suggestion may be accepted or rejected by the user. If the user
accepts the suggested help content, then the aforementioned help
content, including modification of existing tasks, generation of
new tasks or simple provision of help content, may be performed. If
the user rejects the suggested help content, then the parsed task
will remain unchanged.
Having described features and operating environments of/for
embodiments of the invention, FIG. 9 is a flowchart illustrating a
method for providing performance assistance and help content in
association with one or more tasks. The operation 900 begins a
start operation 905 and proceeds to operation 910 where a first
task is received by the personal assistant application 810. That
is, the personal assistant application 810 may pull a task from the
list authoring surface user interface 120, for example, the top
task on the task list, or from other any tasks application in use
by the user, or the personal assistant application 810 may pull all
tasks included in one or more task lists for reviewing one or more
of the tasks, as described herein. The personal assistant
application also may receive the first task in response to a
selection of the first task by a user. In addition, the first
electronic task may be received based on a reminder to perform the
first electronic task.
For each received task, the personal assistant application 810
parses the task into one or more keywords, key terms, or key
phrases through natural language processing or through another
recognition means, as described above. At operation 915, keywords,
key terms, key phrases are utilized by the personal assistant
application 810 for searching one or more available data sources
for performance assistance (e.g., application functionality) and
help content associated with a given task. The one or more data
sources may include searching one of an Internet-based search
engine, an application-based help source, a templates source, an
electronic calendar, an electronic tasks source, an electronic "to
do" list, an electronic "my to do list," an application store,
concierge service, human assistant service, or any other source
that may be searched using a text string of the task or keywords,
key terms, key phrases parsed from the text string.
In response to the search, help content may be returned for
including in the task as a modified task or for generating a new
task, as described below. Help content may be in the form of (but
not limited to) Internet-displayed content, application-based help
content, templates source content, electronic calendar content,
electronic tasks content, electronic "to do" list content,
electronic "my to do" list content and helpful coupons or other
product/services offerings.
At operation 920, the personal assistant application 810 may modify
an existing task by adding help content to the existing task, by
adding a link to the help content to the existing task, by adding
other content such as photographs, audio files, video files,
electronic document files, and the like to a given task to modify
the task from its original condition in order to allow the user to
receive the help content when reviewing or following up on the
given task. At operation 925, the personal assistant application
810 may generate a new task altogether if help content is of a type
requiring or suggesting the need for a new task. As described
above, modifications to existing tasks or generation of news tasks
may be performed automatically by the personal assistant
application 810 or modifications of existing tasks or generation of
new tasks may be performed after a suggestion and subsequent
acceptance of the modifications or new task generations to the user
by the personal assistant application 810.
At operation 930, the modified or new tasks, in association with
the obtained help content, may be presented to the user in the list
authoring surface user interface 120, or in another tasks
application in use by the user. At operation 935, as an alternative
to presenting a modified or new task, the help content may be
presented to the user in a separate user interface component on the
user's desktop or mobile computing device. At operation 940, if
desired, an application or site, for example, an Internet-based
content site, from which help content was obtained may be launched.
For example, if a link to a particular application or help content
site is included in a modified or new task, the link may be
selected by the user for launching or browsing to the associated
application or site.
At operation 945, any obtained performance assistance functionality
may be automatically provided or may be provided in response to a
suggestion and acceptance to/from the user. For example, in
association with a task of "Prepare a resume," a desktop publishing
application and a resume template may be automatically launched for
use, or the personal assistant application may suggest the
functionality to the user and then may provide the functionality if
user accepts the suggested functionality. The method ends at
operation 995.
Having described embodiments of the present invention and an
example logical flow illustrating a method for using task
information to obtain help content, FIG. 10 is a block diagram
illustrating example physical components of a computing device 1000
with which embodiments of the invention may be practiced. The
computing device components described below may be suitable for the
computing devices described above, for example, the computing
devices 405, 410 and the server and database systems 420, 425. In a
basic configuration, computing device 1000 may include at least one
processing unit 1002 and a system memory 1004. Depending on the
configuration and type of computing device, system memory 1004 may
comprise, but is not limited to, volatile (e.g. random access
memory (RAM)), non-volatile (e.g. read-only memory (ROM)), flash
memory, or any combination. System memory 1004 may include
operating system 1005, one or more programming modules 1006, and
may include a web browser application 1007. Operating system 1005,
for example, may be suitable for controlling computing device
1000's operation. Furthermore, embodiments of the invention may be
practiced in conjunction with a graphics library, other operating
systems, or any other application program and is not limited to any
particular application or system. This basic configuration is
illustrated in FIG. 10 by those components within a dashed line
1008.
Computing device 1000 may have additional features or
functionality. For example, computing device 1000 may also include
additional data storage devices (removable and/or non-removable)
such as, for example, magnetic disks, optical disks, or tape. Such
additional storage is illustrated in FIG. 10 by a removable storage
1009 and a non-removable storage 1010.
As stated above, a number of program modules and data files may be
stored in system memory 1004, including operating system 1005.
While executing on processing unit 1002, programming modules 1006,
such as the list authoring surface application or module 100,
described above with respect to FIG. 1, and the personal assistant
application 810, described above with respect to FIG. 8, and the
web browser application 1007 may perform processes including, for
example, one or more method 1000's stages as described above. The
aforementioned process is an example, and processing unit 1002 may
perform other processes. Other programming modules that may be used
in accordance with embodiments of the present invention may include
electronic mail and contacts applications, word processing
applications, spreadsheet applications, database applications,
slide presentation applications, drawing or computer-aided
application programs, etc.
Generally, consistent with embodiments of the invention, program
modules may include routines, programs, components, data
structures, and other types of structures that may perform
particular tasks or that may implement particular abstract data
types. Moreover, embodiments of the invention may be practiced with
other computer system configurations, including hand-held devices,
multiprocessor systems, microprocessor-based or programmable
consumer electronics, minicomputers, mainframe computers, and the
like. Embodiments of the invention may also be practiced in
distributed computing environments where tasks are performed by
remote processing devices that are linked through a communications
network. In a distributed computing environment, program modules
may be located in both local and remote memory storage devices.
Furthermore, embodiments of the invention may be practiced in an
electrical circuit comprising discrete electronic elements,
packaged or integrated electronic chips containing logic gates, a
circuit utilizing a microprocessor, or on a single chip containing
electronic elements or microprocessors. Embodiments of the
invention may also be practiced using other technologies capable of
performing logical operations such as, for example, AND, OR, and
NOT, including but not limited to mechanical, optical, fluidic, and
quantum technologies. In addition, embodiments of the invention may
be practiced within a general purpose computer or in any other
circuits or systems.
Embodiments of the invention, for example, may be implemented as a
computer process (method), a computing system, or as an article of
manufacture, such as a computer program product or computer
readable media. The computer program product may be a computer
storage media readable by a computer system and encoding a computer
program of instructions for executing a computer process.
The term computer readable media as used herein may include
computer storage media. Computer storage media may include volatile
and nonvolatile, removable and non-removable media implemented in
any method or technology for storage of information, such as
computer readable instructions, data structures, program modules,
or other data. System memory 1004, removable storage 1009, and
non-removable storage 1010 are all computer storage media examples
(i.e., memory storage.) Computer storage media may include, but is
not limited to, RAM, ROM, electrically erasable read-only memory
(EEPROM), flash memory or other memory technology, CD-ROM, digital
versatile disks (DVD) or other optical storage, magnetic cassettes,
magnetic tape, magnetic disk storage or other magnetic storage
devices, or any other medium which can be used to store information
and which can be accessed by computing device 1000. Any such
computer storage media may be part of device 1000. Computing device
1000 may also have input device(s) 1012 such as a keyboard, a
mouse, a pen, a sound input device, a touch input device, etc.
Output device(s) 1014 such as a display, speakers, a printer, etc.
may also be included. The aforementioned devices are examples and
others may be used.
The term computer readable media as used herein may also include
communication media. Communication media may be embodied by
computer readable instructions, data structures, program modules,
or other data in a modulated data signal, such as a carrier wave or
other transport mechanism, and includes any information delivery
media. The term "modulated data signal" may describe a signal that
has one or more characteristics set or changed in such a manner as
to encode information in the signal. By way of example, and not
limitation, communication media may include wired media such as a
wired network or direct-wired connection, and wireless media such
as acoustic, radio frequency (RF), infrared, and other wireless
media.
Embodiments of the present invention, for example, are described
above with reference to block diagrams and/or operational
illustrations of methods, systems, and computer program products
according to embodiments of the invention. The functions/acts noted
in the blocks may occur out of the order as shown in any flowchart.
For example, two blocks shown in succession may in fact be executed
substantially concurrently or the blocks may sometimes be executed
in the reverse order, depending upon the functionality/acts
involved.
While certain embodiments of the invention have been described,
other embodiments may exist. Furthermore, although embodiments of
the present invention have been described as being associated with
data stored in memory and other storage mediums, data can also be
stored on or read from other types of computer-readable media, such
as secondary storage devices, like hard disks, floppy disks, or a
CD-ROM, a carrier wave from the Internet, or other forms of RAM or
ROM. Further, the disclosed methods' stages may be modified in any
manner, including by reordering stages and/or inserting or deleting
stages, without departing from the invention.
It will be apparent to those skilled in the art that various
modifications or variations may be made in the present invention
without departing from the scope or spirit of the invention. Other
embodiments of the invention will be apparent to those skilled in
the art from consideration of the specification and practice of the
invention disclosed herein.
* * * * *
References